I 



GOLFCLUBSl 

ANDHOVt^TO 

USE -TH EM 




BY 



DWARD RAY 




Book_-.J?B_CL 



GOLF CLUBS AND 
HOW TO USE THEM 



GOLF CLUBS AND 
HOW TO USE THEM 



BY 

EDWARD RAY 



NEW YORK 

ROBERT M. McBRIDE ^ COMPANY 

1922 



^3S 



"1 >. 



L 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

PREFACE ----- Vii 

I. MISTAKEN IMPRESSIONS OF BEGIN- 
NERS - - . _ - I 

II. THE VARIOUS CLUBS - - - - 4 

III. THE VEXED PUTTER - - - - 8 

IV. ATTENTION TO GRIPS - - - I3 
V. GOLF BALLS ----- 16 

VI. THE DRIVE THE IMPORTANT STROKE 20 

VII. DRIVING PITFALLS - - - - 22 

VIII. THE BRASSY SHOT - - - - 28 

IX. THE GRIP QUESTION - - - 32 

X. THE USES OF THE VARIOUS CLUBS - 36 

XI. CLUBS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES - 4I 

INDEX 55 



PREFACE 

PREFACES are often boring, and so very 
seldom touch upon real issues, that I make no 
apology for the brevity of mine to this 
work. But, I would like to emphasize that when 
all our leading authorities on the orthodox in 
golf disagree here and there in little matters, 
then surely the unorthodox golfer is entitled 
to his opinion or opinions. Suffice it to say that 
I never was orthodox even as a small boy in 
Jersey, and one may say that either because of, 
or despite, this persistence of mine in keeping 
away from stereotyped golfing methods, I have 
attained a small measure of success in that 
Royal and Ancient game. 

On each of my tours in America, and very 
often in this country, I have been asked how 
I accounted for a player of my style — a style in 
many ways breaking the canons of golf — achieving 
success now and then, and I have invariably 
indulged in the Caledonian characteristic of 
answering one question by asking another : 
" How do you think I would fare were I to drop 
my present style ? " 

January, 1922. , E. R. 



GOLF CLUBS 
AND HOW TO USE THEM 

CHAPTER I 
MISTAKEN IMPRESSIONS OF BEGINNERS 

NO doubt when the man who has never 
played golf in his life sees an expert for 
the first time, he is struck mostly by the apparent 
simplicity of the game, and times out of number 
I have heard great exponents of other ball 
games argue that a game in which the ball is 
stationary must be much more simple than 
games in which a moving ball has to be dealt 
with. But it is a singular fact that of all the 
Masters we have had of golf, there never has 
been one who did not have his little mental trials 
on top of his little golfing mistakes. There are 
styles among our leaders almost too numerous 
to think of. We have the " Sandy " Herd type 
of player who is almost mentally argumentative 
in the studiousness of his play, and we have the 
cold and calculating Braid. We have the express- 
like George Duncan, and we have the dogged 



2 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

J. H. Taylor. Ask any one of these players if 
he has ever played a round in which everything 
to a detail went just as he had wished it to go, 
and I am afraid that the answer will come as a 
rude shock to the fellow who sneers at golf 
simply because there is employed in the game a 
ball which has to be stationary before being 
manipulated. 

When the beginner first takes a tangible 
enthusiasm in the game one can assuredly reckon 
that his chief difficulty will be in the matter of 
the choice of clubs. 

One huge mistake must be avoided, and that 
is the error of going on and on until you have a 
bag so full of clubs that you cannot get the 
proverbial cigarette paper into it. Do not worry 
if the champion of your county insists upon 
having a score of clubs wherever he goes, and 
always remember that one good club in which 
you feel that you have confidence is worth three 
clubs concerning each of which you are in doubt 
as to comparative merit. More than once I 
have observed a golfing beginner stroll out upon 
the course and proceed to foozle effort after 
effort. In turn he has gone from one club to 
another, and each time with the same miserable 
result, and the net effect upon him at the con- 
clusion of his round has been acute wonder why 
he has not done better. The root of the trouble 
was the over-supply of clubs. 



BEGINNERS' MISTAKEN IMPRESSIONS 3 

What is the correct number of clubs for the 
novice ? I would answer, Seven. This number 
provides for most situations which are likely to 
arise in a round on an ordinary course, and at 
the same time gives the young golfer an oppor- 
tunity of studying the different duties and 
capabilities of his implements. Such clubs as 
the spoon, the driving mashie, the mashie iron, 
may safely be left alone for a little time, and 
when confidence has asserted itself, the '' in 
between " clubs, as one may term them, may 
be included in your bag. 



MY OWN CLUB STOCK 

I myself use four wooden clubs, a cleek, a 
driving iron, an iron, a mashie, a niblick, and 
a putter, but I would advise the beginner to 
confine himself to seven clubs, their classification 
being — driver, brassy, cleek, mashie, iron, niblick, 
and putter. 



CHAPTER II 
THE VARIOUS CLUBS 

AS regards the driver, too much rigidity in 
XA^the shaft should be avoided. There should 
be a flexibility quite noticeable, say, a matter of 
ten inches above the socket. 

If a man of average build aims at three and a 
half feet in length for the shaft of his driver, 
he will not be going far wrong, while, as for 
weight, he would do well to get approximately 
two ounces under the pound. The shape of the 
head is a topic which has produced more argu- 
ments than I would care to count, though my 
own particular fancy is the well-known steel-bolt 
pattern. 

Perhaps a little more stiffness in the shaft of 
the brassy is requisite than in the driver, for 
the reason that the brassy is sometimes used to 
extricate the ball from a doubtful sort of He, 
and here one wants strength in manipulation. 
Much the same principles in length apply here 
as in the case of the driver. 

For ordinary purposes the sole of the brassy 
should not be too flat, and if one can get a fair 

4 



THE VARIOUS CLUBS 5 

percentage of the sole to bite into the lie in 
which the ball rests, then so much the better. 
Indeed, if you aim at getting a brassy about 
half an inch of the sole of which comes in contact 
with the ground when it is placed among grass, 
then you have, to my mind, a club which will 
be fairly useful. So much for the wooden clubs. 

Now we come to the iron clubs, and here, for 
obvious reasons, stiffness of shaft is advisable. 
It is very nice to feel a nice lithe element in the 
shaft, but you do not want too much of it in 
the shaft of your iron clubs, for " give " in the 
playing of an iron shot is almost inevitably fatal ; 
for one thing, you run the risk of your shaft 
snapping, and, on the other hand, the very force 
which you desire to get into your stroke is 
partially wasted. The great secret of iron-club 
play is in getting just the correct amount of 
strength at the moment of impact with the ball, 
and all the calculation and delicacy which you 
are capable of will be wasted if the shaft of your 
iron " gives " when the head strikes the ground. 

Take the case of the mid-iron. Loft is wanted 
here, though it must not be overdone, for the 
reason that the direction of the stroke is liable 
to be interfered with. 

Approaches of shorter distances necessitate 
the employment of the mashie, and I would 
advocate the use of this club for strokes of about 
one hundred and twenty yards. This is a 



6 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

club which allows of vigour within reason, 
and, especially when playing on courses in 
the vicinity of big business centres, I would 
suggest that the mashie should have a 
moderately deep face. Nothing is more annoy- 
ing to a player than to have given all his care 
and thought to his ball when in a cuppy-lie, and 
then, when at last he has made up his mind as 
to how to employ his mashie, to see his ball 
come to rest a matter of inches from its original 
position. That is what very often happens 
through using a mashie the blade of which is 
too much angled ; though on a seaside links a 
more shallow blade ma^^ be used. 

We now come to the niblick, the club in my 
bag which has carried many smiles and facetious 
remarks, such as " Now Ray will be pleased with 
himself." Personally, I believe in a niblick with 
a good healthy face on it. In the first place, the 
niblick is a club which you will have recourse to 
when you are in difficulties in long grass and sand. 
And it will at once be apparent that when your 
ball lies amidst troublous circumstances, you 
want, as far as possible, to be sure that you are 
first of all going to get a sufficient amount of 
contact with it and simultaneously have a 
moderate degree of assurance that you will pilot 
it in the required direction. Yet once made, 
you want here a shaft which is capable of standing 
a good strain. I like a niblick with the face 



THE VARIOUS CLUBS 7 

lying back fairly well, for the reason that it will 
then come in useful should I find myself and my 
ball confronted by a miniature precipice, or 
perhaps a giant tree which has to be lofted in 
order to reach the green and avoid wastage of 
strokes. 



CHAPTER III 
THE VEXED PUTTER 

WHEN I come to discourse on the putter, 
I feel that I am about to step in where 
even angels justifiably have doubt, and of all the 
tragedies which exist in golf, there is not one 
more repeated than that of the missed putt. 
Of a truth, a missed putt of eighteen inches 
undoes all the good which has been wrought by 
a magnificent drive or a superb mashie shot, and 
I know full well that the man who most of all 
in the kingdom reckons that he has the putter 
which suits him has been known to sit down in 
the club-house after a roimd and soliloquize 
anent short putts and missed ones. 

For instance I have known players to possess 
iron clubs and wooden clubs of various kinds for 
years and years, and, not only that, but to use 
them constantly over those years, but somehow 
one very seldom finds a man playing with the 
putter which he used, say, ten years ago. Putting 
I am certain, has caused more brain worry than 

8 



THE VEXED PUTTER 9 

any other department of golf. I could name 
one very prominent British amateur who, it is 
generally acknowledged, would be one of the 
finest golfers in the land if he could only get 
over a form of nervousness, and believe me, this 
want of confidence is simply nervousness in 
excelsis when he arrives on the putting green. 
Indeed, so acute is it, that he carries about with 
him two putters, one of the cleek variety, and 
the other of the famous aluminium pattern 
which I myself use. He actually reserves one 
for long putts, while the other he uses for putts 
within a range of a couple of yards. Now, in 
this case I am convinced that seventy-five per 
cent of the player's nervousness arises from the 
knowledge that he is not at home on the putting 
green, and he also knows that he will have to 
visit the vicinity of the flag approximately 
eighteen times during a round. Some may 
think I am exaggerating when I say so, but I 
am sticking to absolute truth when I say that I 
have known of a man possessing a stock of just 
under thirty putters ! 

There is such a variety of tastes in putters, 
and tastes alter so in many cases, that I am 
rather loth to enter upon a series of advices 
regarding the putter. But having undertaken 
to deal with all golf clubs, I am afraid I have 
committed myself. 

A healthily stiff shaft is requisite here, and 



10 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

personally I have no use for a putter with some- 
thing like a " whip-handle " shaft, while lightness 
is, to my mind, an element which may also well 
be kept in check. Mark you, all the while I am 
writing these remarks I have a lingering sus- 
picion that to a certain extent they are useless, 
for, more particularly among beginners, there is 
a tremendous and almost unquenchable desire to 
chop and change about in the matter of putters, 
and I cannot emphasize too forcibly that, not 
only in the department of putters, but regarding 
every club in your bag, changes are in ninety 
per cent of cases not for the good of your 
game. 



CHANGES TO BE GUARDED AQAINST 

I myself only once went in for anything like 
a change in my set of clubs, and I can assure 
you that it was very reluctantly, for it was when 
my shop at Oxhey was burned and with it my 
clubs. My iron heads I recovered, but, needless 
to say, my wooden clubs went " west " and with 
them my favourite driver, which to me was like 
a close-blood relative. It took me years to get 
a driver which I reckoned to be similar to my 
original one, but even now I cannot think of my 
old driver without a twinge of regret. This 
you may say is all very personal and not of 



THE VEXED PUTTER 11 

assistance to the average golfer, but it goes to 
show that when you are in possession of a good 
club you ought to stick to it, and even if there 
are days when in moments of wrath you feel 
that one of your clubs is not giving satisfaction, 
again stick to it. Never mind if a fellow comes 
along and tells you that the particular club to 
which you have for a long time pinned your 
faith, and which you have temporarily lost 
confidence in, is a bad club. When those dis- 
turbing moments come along, remember the old 
Scottish adage — " Better wi' the deil ye ken than 
the deil ye dinna ken.'' 

If I may go back for a few moments I would 
like to deal with a club which has achieved a 
wonderful amount of popularity within the past 
couple of decades in quarters where it was not 
seen too frequently before. I allude to the 
baffy. Scot players are great believers in this 
club ; and I have seen Englishmen do more than 
tolerably well with the baffy. I have witnessed 
" Sandy " Herd and George Duncan — two con- 
trasts as stylists — work tremendous havoc upon 
their opponents by means of the baffy. The 
nicely set-back face and the curved sole are 
remarkable features of the baffy, and particularly 
on inland turf. 

One explanation I ought to make, in view of 
possible questions of an awkward nature, concerns 
my niblick, the club which has caused many 



12 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

smiles on its being handed to me by my caddie. 
That club is in fact a mashie-niblick, and its 
peculiarities are the length of the head, and not 
too pronounced loft. 



CHAPTER IV 
ATTENTION TO GRIPS 

SO many times have I seen players engage 
in the most uncomfortable contortions 
with their fingers that I feel constrained to point 
out that too much attention cannot be given to 
the grips. The leather work of which they are 
constructed will not last for ever, and the man 
who refuses to attend to his grips is asking for 
trouble. Rain gets at the grips of your clubs 
and the perspiration from your hands also gets 
into them. But, as likety as not, you go on 
month after month, and cannot understand why 
it is that you do not wield your clubs just as you 
would Hke to. The explanation is simple. The 
leather has become hardened and your fingers 
do not get the hold required. Therefore, give 
a thought to your grips now and then. Lastly, 
when your grips become irrevocably hard, get 
rid of them and have a new set. There are good 
grips on the market, and, though I will not lend 
myself to advertising here, if any player who 
meets me cares to mention the matter, I will 

13 



14 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

put him on what is the best grip being sold just 
at present. 



AND CLUBS 

f 

Seeing that I have advocated looking after 
your grips very carefully, I might as well give 
a hint as to looking after your clubs themselves. 
So many players expect their shafts to go on 
month after month without attention of any kind 
that one almost wonders if they possess domestic 
pets. If they do, then Providence look after the 
said pets. 

Your golf clubs want as much looking after as 
your collie dog or your Persian cat, although, 
of course, in another way. Rain and damp will 
affect your clubs in a multitude of ways, and, 
for that matter, when the average golfer takes 
his clubs home, what does he do with them ? 
Ten to one that he leaves them standing against 
the hall stand perhaps for a week or even longer, 
and with the front door being opened a myriad 
times during their stay there. Believe me, 
weather acts on the shaft of your clubs in a way 
the ordinary man does not appreciate, though 
you may justifiably say that bad weather is thus 
a good friend to a professional like myself in 
view of the fact that I sell clubs. Still my 
intention here is to give sincere and honest advice. 

The remedy is a very simple one, for if you 



ATTENTION TO GRIPS 15 

would preserve the natural life and strength of 
your shafts, a little linseed oil now and then, 
with a coat of varnish at intervals will work 
wonders. Wood, no more than metal, can not go 
on for prolonged periods without attention, and 
even if a man may say that it is " a beastly fag " 
oiHng and varnishing his clubs, I was never more 
sincere than when I say that attention given 
your shafts will pay for itself time over time. 



CHAPTER V 
GOLF BALLS 

THE question of the golf ball has loomed 
large for a very considerable time previous 
to my writing this book. The feeling seemed in 
some quarters to be that the time had come 
when driving had reached such a stage that 
something had to be done in order to reduce 
the length of the drive of fjrst-class men, and 
thereupon came a great campaign for what some 
were pleased to call the standard ball. The 
small and heavy ball had crept into popularity 
and with practically all the golfers in the United 
Kingdom and elsewhere using it the time seemed 
ripe to introduce legislation good, bad, or in- 
different, in the matter of golf balls. Really 
the gist of the new idea was that driving must 
be reduced in length. It did not matter how 
far the first-class golfers might be penalized ; the 
whole solution it was said lay in the introduction 
of the Hght and floating ball. No need for me 
now to recount the awful furore with which the 
proposition was received, and to an extent I can 



GOLF BALLS 17 

well understand it. Truly, as one very well- 
known amateur expressed himself on the situation, 
it would have been just as feasible to bring about 
legislation which would count two strokes to the 
man who holed a three-yard putt instead of 
one stroke as we have been accustomed to for 
so ' many years. The proposition could only 
have a more or less hostile reception, and I myself 
consider that the golf ball which some authorities 
would force on to the golfing community will 
have a short career. 

Not only among professionals but among 
amateurs the small and heavy ball was favourite, 
and when the new ball was recently introduced 
to the pubHc it did not have the commendation 
of more than five per cent of the golfers of this 
country. To be quite candid I cannot give the 
large and floating ball my support, and I am 
unable to see that either the beginner or long- 
handicap man can be helped one whit by the 
ball which was brought out in the year 1921 
amidst much ceremony if not acclamation. 

As a matter of fact had it been really desirable 
to keep driving within certain limits I think it 
would have been much better to have adopted 
another and much more simple course. With 
the ball which had been in general use I fail to 
understand how with the same materials in use 
as had been used for many years the driving of 
even our best men on the tee could have length- 



18 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

ened to any appreciable extent. There was the 
chance for those who desired to interest them- 
selves keenly in the matter. How easy it would 
have been to have allowed driving to go on as 
humanity might allow, so long as the old materials 
alone were employed in golf-baU construction. 
Even if another substance as a component part 
of the ball were introduced that substance might 
have been allowed so long as the average drive 
of, say, 1920, was not lengthened by more than 
fifty yards. When more than fifty yards came 
to be added to the drive then might arise the 
opportunity to step in and draw a line, but from 
what I know of substances which are used and 
which might be used in the construction of a 
golf-baU I should say that the chance of fifty 
yards being added to the length of a good drive 
in 1920 are so remote as not to be of the slightest 
interest to this or the next generation of golfers. 
Having said unhesitatingly that I have no 
affection for the large and floating ball, I may 
safely leave the subject of the golf ball. There 
are on the market varieties of the golf ball the 
names of which would occupy many pages in 
this book, and when all is said and done the 
problem as to which is the best baU for a given 
player to use reduced itself to a mere matter 
of opinion. Especially in the case of the beginner 
the topic of what ball he should use may safely 
be left out of any discussion. The golf ball as 



GOLF BALLS 19 

we have known it for a long time is as near 
perfection as it is to be got, and the difference 
between one and another is infinitesimal if one 
takes the dozen best-known brands. 

Now and then one hears academic discussions 
*as to the dimple ball, the bramble ball, and the 
mesh ball, but to be quite candid I fail to see 
that the average golfer need seriously trouble 
himself as to which ball he uses — if only he be 
left to use the small and heavy ball. 

I quite agree that there have been great 
changes in the golf ball here and there in the 
past. I also agree that the introduction of the 
Haskell ball some twenty years ago practically 
revolutionized the golf ball market, but I do 
not think that anyone will gainsay the fact that 
the ball which we know to-day is a better ball 
for the beginner, the moderate-handicap man, 
the long-handicap man, and the plus man, than 
has ever been on the market, and moreover is a 
ball which is very unlikely to be improved upon 
if golf be played from now until the crack of 
doom. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE DRIVE THE IMPORTANT STROKE 

OPINIONS differ as to which is the most 
important of golfing strokes, and despite 
the arguments which have taken place regarding 
this subject, I, as might be expected, will plump 
for driving. J. H. Taylor has made himself 
world famous by reason of his approach play, 
and it is not more than a few months ago that 
his opinion concerning the value of the pitch as 
opposed to the run-up formed the point of a 
terrific controversy. Yet again, Willie Park, 
formerly of Musselburgh, and now stationed in 
the United States, has placed putting first as 
the prime necessity for the man who would show 
golfing prowess. 

I will analyse it this way. You cannot putt 
well unless you have approached well, and you 
cannot approach well if your drive has not been 
a good one. 

If a man is going to cultivate a good swing, 
he must begin slowly. Imagine a man who has 
decided, or has had it decided for him, that as 

20 



THE DRIVE THE IMPORTANT STROKE 21 

a runner he is a quarter-miler. Does his tutor 
allow him at first to go away at break-neck speed 
and then do the last hundred and fifty yards in 
a state of semi-blindness ? Not at all ! And the 
same thing applies to the man who, beginning 
with the rudiments of golf, sets out to get a 
correct swing. I have in mind one player who 
for six months from the time of his first taking 
up golf was not allowed to look at a golf ball. 
Day after day this pupil had to swing at an 
imaginary ball, while his tutor adjusted his 
fingers, moved first one foot and then the other 
a fraction of an inch, set one shoulder a quarter 
of an inch in advance of the other, and so on. 
I grant that this treatment is a trifle drastic, 
and not every man has the time, or the moral 
courage, to swing at a ball that is not there for 
three or four hours a day, seven days a week, 
for six months. Yet the man tells me that he 
is now^ plus four, so I suppose that there was 
method in what some people may uncharitably/ 
term madness. 



CHAPTER VII 
DRIVING PITFALLS 

AN uncomfortable feeling is sometimes 
XJL^xperienced by the golfer regarding his 
driving. After a period of strict attention to 
his play on the tee, he finds that he can only 
attain a length of between one hundred and fifty 
and one hundred and eighty yards. His aspira- 
tions, of course, are much in excess of that 
distance, and a feeling of annoyance comes along 
with the almost inevitable result that for a time 
at least his driving powers go to the winds. 
That is the time when the " slowly back " idea 
is forgotten, and that precisely is the time when 
it should be most kept in mind. A disjointed 
and hasty swing back is simply a useless expen- 
diture of energy, and, in strict fact, adds nothing 
in the way of merit to the down swing. Indeed, 
it would not be going too far to say that anything 
like a jerk in the back swing is going to have an 
effect on the drive which is derogatory and nothing 
else. It entails a strain on the lower part of 
the forearm which is not for the improvement 

:?2 



DRIVING PITFALLS 23 

of one's game, and, altogether, hurry or any 
semblance of hurry in the upward part of the 
swing is something which if once cultivated it 
is as well as early as possible to be rid of. 

Opinions may differ as to the method, but it 
is beyond argument that on the down ^wing 
force and speed are essential, which fact is 
proved up to the hilt by a casual glance at the 
methods of such players as Abe Mitchell, James 
Batley, or myself. 

It is here that I would call attention to the 
problem of timing, and probably that is one of 
the most important points in the art of long 
driving. The finest example of timing that I 
have seen exists in the wooden club play of 
J. H. Kirkwood, the Australian and New Zealand 
Open Champion, who visited Britain in 192 1. 
This Antipodean expert uses clubs which contain 
an inordinate amount of the " whippy " element, 
and he is one of the few golfers I have seen who 
have adapted themselves to their clubs rather 
than procure clubs which suited their play. It 
may be that a fractional error in the case of 
Kirkwood would lead to trouble of the most dire 
order, but the fact remains that he contrives to 
avoid error with his wooden clubs, and very 
successfully. That is the result of good timing. 

It really does not matter a great deal if one 
chooses to use the full swing which is characteristic 
of my own plav. or whether one chooses to do 



24 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

away with the follow through as in the style of 
Abe Mitchell — the thing is to get accurate hitting 
and hitting of useful length in a style which will 
suit the individual golfer. As I have already 
suggested, I lay no claim to being what is known 
as a stylist, and perhaps for that reason I am 
incHned to be a little sympathetic towards the 
peculiarities of human nature and the vagaries 
of the human frame. 

Something Hke the idea to aim at in getting 
a lengthy drive is this : the club is controlled 
from the wrists, the part of the arm from the 
wrists to the elbows, from the joints just named, 
and the arms swing from the shoulders. The 
body must move as if dependent for its move- 
ments on the spine. At the same time these 
movements must be gone through without too 
much relationship between each, and the net 
effect must be that a concentration in their 
effects should accrue at the crucial moment. 
That moment is at the exact time when the 
club-head meets the ball. If anything goes 
wrong in the manoeuvre which I have endeavoured 
to describe, your timing is inaccurate and the 
pure result is what is known as pressing. 

In his first few essays at length the player in 
executing his drive may be. tempted to impart 
too much speed to the commencement of his 
downward swing, and that temptation in most 
cases arises from a sort of horror that time has 



DRIVING PITFALLS 25 

been lost in the slow up-swing. If that error be 
fallen into that small fault will lead to a con- 
glomeration of faults, and that mixture of faults 
will end in a drive which will not, to say the 
least, give the player cause for congratulation. 
It is not at the top of the swing that pace and force 
are required, but, as I have already said, at the 
point of the swing when the club-head strikes 
the ball. An3^hing in the nature of hurried 
force at the top of the swing is entirely out of 
place. Rather let the club begin the down swing 
with a nice easy movement, and then aU the way 
in its passage to the ball let it increase in its 
velocity. 

Should the elbows and wrists come into 
operation after the forearms have done their 
task the hands will get in front of the ball in a 
most undesirable way, and, in fact, will be in 
front of the ball before the club comes in contact 
with it. 

Now we come to the question of body-work 
in the drive, and here I know that I am dis- 
coursing on a topic which will cause much 
comment ; but, yet again as I have already said, 
I never was orthodox and I am afraid never will 
be. Those who have witnessed my play have 
doubtless noticed that in my up-swing my body 
has a tendency to sway from the target and then 
in turn it moves in the direction of the ball in 
the down swing. But, to be quite candid, I 



26 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

would scarcely advise the inexperienced golfer 
to start emulating me in this respect as there are 
little points upon which he might go wrong. 
By far better let him wait until he has mastered 
the more academic items and then study the 
matter of sway. 

Fairly free pivoting is essential in the first 
sway, and as the club advances and the forward 
movement of the body is evident, a slight turn 
on the ball of the left foot is advisable, the turn 
culminating in a sort of pointing of the left foot 
in the direction of the drive. By that means one 
will achieve a sort of rhythm and ease. 

It has been suggested to me sometimes that 
my somewhat extraordinary build is everything 
in my driving, and though perhaps it may 
truthfully be said that my fairly bulky propor- 
tions do play a part in my driving, it would be 
a mistake to say that they entirely govern it. 
Though it is conceded by many that build does 
count in long driving, an argument I agree with 
to an extent, it must be kept in mind that there 
are players of comparatively small build who 
can get prodigious length from the tee, and here 
I have in mind the well-known Ben Sayers, senr., 
of North Berwick. This little man, who is merely 
a shade over five feet in height, uses clubs which 
do not compare too unfavourably with himself 
in the matter of length, and he achieves a length 
which is positively astounding to anyone watching 



DRIVING PITFALLS 27 

him for the first time. Yet again he is unorthodox 
in his way much as I am in mine. His is a case 
where timing has been reduced to a fine art, 
and I suppose that just as it would be unsuitable 
for me to attempt to follow out the finer theories 
which have been advocated by our great pro- 
fessors for many years, so it would be corres- 
pondingly unsuitable for Sayers to endeavour 
to play golf on the more accepted lines. The 
point of this is that the average golfer who reads 
books on the Royal and Ancient Game scarcely 
ever hopes to be a Harry Vardon, and I have 
tried to write as far as possible with the average- 
handicap and low-handicap man in mind. 

Even among men of something like ordinary 
physique one finds little peculiarities in style too 
numerous and too varied to recount, and I have 
in mind at the moment the flourish in the swing 
of Arnaud Massy. One can perceive an element 
almost of the impetuous in George Duncan's 
style, and despite all that has been written for 
years and years there is no gainsajdng the fact 
that each and every golfer in the front rank, 
whether he be amateur or professional, has his 
own little way. Therefore, in explaining how I 
manage to get a fairly lengthy drive I do not 
insist that the student of the game shall follow 
me in every little detail. I ask him to employ 
common sense here and there according to his own 
build, his own weight, and other considerations. 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE BRASSY SHOT 

WE now come to another wooden club, 
the brassy. The brassy is a club which 
almost performs the task of the driver in the 
getting of length, and there is an angle on the 
face which is intended to an extent to get the 
club-head under more than behind the ball. 
With regard to the swing in the brassy shot, the 
student will not go far wrong in following out 
my advice concerning the up and down swing 
in the case of the driver, and it is as well to 
keep in mind that as punishment arises in the 
faulty playing of the drive, it takes a more severe 
form in a badly manipulated brassy shot. To 
begin with, the brassy is generally brought into 
play with the ball in such a position that it wants 
to be got under to an extent by the club-head, 
and that factor, as is at once evident, is one 
which necessitates most careful execution. I 
believe that the brassy was originally intended 
for a lie on such a surface as a pathway or a 
roadway, but it was not long before the powers 

28 



THE BRASSY SHOT 29 

of this club in getting the ball out of awkward 
lies through the green were discovered. 

First of all, I will take the case of a low-lying 
ball. One does not get the facility of a nice tee, 
and, whatever happens, the ball has to be got 
into the air. To do this the stance should be 
slightly closer to the ball than in the case of the 
drive. The position of the feet regarding the 
ball may be much in that of the left heel being 
about half a foot in front of the ball, though if 
the ball be embedded rather deeply the left foot 
may be moved just a shade rearwards. It does 
not matter such a great deal if a slight cut is 
imparted, and after a time the student will come 
to recognize that cut, if not overdone, does not 
assuredly mean that the shot will not contain 
straightness. However, whether or not the 
beginner chooses to use cut, it will be as well if 
he in his up-swing employ just a trifle more 
straightness, for a flat swing is almost as good 
as useless where the brassy is concerned. The 
ball has to be struck fairly low, so that it will 
soar over bunkers which may lie between its 
position and the green. 

One thing to be avoided in the playing of the 
brassy shot is the pull, for almost as sure as the 
novice attempts pull with his brassy the distance 
he will gain will be disappointing. At any time 
there is just a risk when the beginner is manipu- 
lating his brassy that he will ** smother'' the 



30 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

ball, and the risk is intensified if there is an 
inclination to pull. 

On the up-swing force may be brought in 
almost immediately the club-head has reached 
its apex, and here I might remark that the brassy 
shot does not involve one or two of the delicate 
points employed in the drive. There should be 
a fairly firm grip. The wrists should be moder- 
ately steady at the moment of impact between 
club-head and ball, and if this be kept in mind 
the beginner will soon appreciate the value of 
the brassy for the lengthy approach. The 
brassy is now primarily intended for a lie through 
the green, but quite a number of prominent 
players are quite at home in using it from the 
teeing ground. Moreover, I have seen the 
brassy used in very awkward lies on hillocks and 
so forth, though I myself cannot get away from 
a conviction that the iron club is the implement 
with which to get out of every questionable 
position and that the driver is the correct club 
to use on the teeing ground at a longish hole. 
I quite admit that some players take into con- 
sideration a threatening hazard or perhaps 
shortness in length of the hole, and many players 
make many excuses and apologies for the use 
of the brassy from the tee. If a man explains 
that the length of the shaft of his brassy suits 
him much better than does that of his driver 
from the tee, then that is a confession that the 



THE BRASSY SHOT 31 

shaft of his driver is not what it ought to be, 
for a driver properly constructed and properly 
used should bring about proper results from the 
tee. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE GRIP QUESTION 

IT seems to me that now that I have dealt 
with the driver and the brassy the moment 
is opportune for the introduction of the question 
of the grip. In Britain, in America, in AustraHa, 
in India, and in South Africa the problem of the 
grip has excited controversy almost beyond 
measure, and when the most prominent American 
players, amateurs and professionals, arrived in 
England in the beginning of the golfing season 
of 1921, the query raised by more than five 
people out of ten was as to whether Mr. " Bobby " 
Jones kept his thumb down the shaft, as to 
whether Mr. (" Siege Gun ") Jesse Guildford 
used the overlapping grip at all, etc. 

At this time of day it is apparent that the 
majority of golfers are in favour of the over- 
lapping grip, even though such experts as 
Mr. Harold H. HHton and Mr. Sidney H. Fry 
recommend a separation of the hands on the 
grip of the shaft. Naturally when Mr. Hilton, 
the former Amateur and Open Champion, and 

32 



THE GRIP QUESTION 33 

Mr. Fry, the one time runner-up in the Amateur 
Championship, have expressed sentiments which 
go against the use of the overlapping grip, less 
important people in golf may be pardoned if 
they oppose each other in their views on this 
question, but, as I say, it really would appear 
as if within the next few years practically every 
golfer of note will be using the overlapping grip. 
At the same time it must be kept in mind that 
even in the overlapping grip there are little 
points of difference among first-class golfers, and 
my own method is to point my right thumb 
directly down the shaft instead of slightly curling 
it round the leather grip. A good hold of the 
club by the fingers of the left hand is advisable 
with, of course, the left thumb uppermost. The 
right-hand fingers should encircle the shaft so 
that the little finger holds the left forefinger, the 
left thumb being completely covered by the ball 
of the right thumb. Some players prefer to have 
the right thumb round the shaft, but the essential 
point is to have the two hands working in concert 
as far as can be. 

One point which to my mind is in favour of 
the pointing of the right thumb down the shaft 
is that should the player unconsciously allow the 
club to drift to an unhealthy extent across the 
right shoulder at the top of the swing, the placing 
of the right thumb as I advocate has a tendency 
towards preventing the evil becoming accentuated 



84 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

in such a manner as to prove a deterrent factor. 
Of course it would be idle to aver that it is an 
utter impossibility for the club to wander in the 
way described whilst keeping the thumb down 
the shaft, but what I will say is this. That if 
you keep the thumb down the shaft you will 
very soon know if you are allowing the club 
to drop. 

With the right thumb round the grip of the 
shaft it is always possible for the shaft to slip 
between the forefinger and the thumb, and once 
that contingency arises, well, there is no grip at 
all. If your grip is not correct your swing will 
be very short of perfection, and if your swing is 
imperfect, then your golfing effort will be nothing 
to be proud of. 

I have known instances of players who have 
held the club in a finger grip at the commence- 
ment of the swing, but before the swing has gone 
very far the grip of the club has been in the 
palm, and one thing is certain, that if at the top 
of the swing the palms of the hands leave the 
shaft, the swing and the grip ought to be fairly 
good. 

Never could I see the truth of the assertion 
made in days gone by with reference to a strong 
grip with the left hand and a loose grip with the 
right ; if the intention is for both hands to work 
together, logically an equal grip should be taken 
in order to get this effect. 



THE GRIP QUESTION 35 

Those who have witnessed my play will 
doubtless have in mind the fact that I more or 
less hold my club on the putting green in a 
similar manner to that in which I hold my other 
clubs, but I will not be so egotistical as to lay 
it down that my way is the best way. Putting 
is a department of golf which stands out from 
other departments, and I am sure that so great 
is the diversity of opinion on all matters per- 
taining to putting that only a very small per- 
centage of the readers of this book will follow 
me literally. Still, if on account of what I have 
written on the question of the grip — whether the 
reader agrees with me in every detail or only 
in one or two — the golfing student finds that his 
game has been improved, it will have been" well 
worth my while going into explanation of the 
grip. 



CHAPTER X 
THE USES OF THE VARIOUS CLUBS 

OBVIOUSLY each and every golf club has 
its particular use, and as one travels 
around the various courses it is astonishing how 
one finds presumably good players from the way 
they shape using what are unquestionably wrong 
clubs in certain instances. Many players I have 
met have apparently had little or no conception 
of the distances which various clubs were meant 
to get, and I recall the story of a sarcastic caddie 
on a London course. He was carrying for a 
member whose confidence in his own play entirely 
outweighed the admiration of others for it, and 
that member was about to essay a long carry on 
to a green. Good-naturedly the lad remarked 
to his employer, " Don't take iron, sir ; take a 
wooden club," but the player verbally and 
forcibly signified his ability in his own mind to 
reach the green. " Right,*' rejoined the caddie, 
" If you'll wait for three weeks I'll bring that 
green one hundred and fifty yards nearer to you, 
sir '* as he dropped the caddie bag and slowly 

36 



THE USES OF THE VARIOUS CLUBS 87 

sauntered in to the caddie master's shed to 
report that he had had enough of that club 
member. 

I have seen an ignorant player play his brassy 
with the intention of carrying a bunker when 
he had not the slightest chance of doing so unless 
he played the shot badly. No one admires the 
heroic more than I do on the golf course, and 
no one admires determination more than I do, 
but there comes a time when the heroic and the 
determined cease to be such and become out-and- 
out misplaced ambition. 

If anyone wants a perfect example of playing 
the correct club he need only look to Mr. John 
Ball, the famous Royal Liverpool golfer and 
eight times Amateur Champion, playing on the 
Hoylake course. Mr. Ball's wonderful play on 
the Cheshire green may solely be put down to 
his local knowledge, and to the knowledge of 
which is the most advantageous club to use in 
given circumstances. Mr. Ball at the age of 
fifty-eight years in the Amateur Championship 
of 1921, gave one of the most perfect performances 
ever seen on a golf course against a young 
American named Douglas, and actually beat 
Douglas when the latter looked like keeping the 
American Flag fijdng in a wholesale attempt 
made by United States amateurs to capture our 
Amateur Championship. Mr. Ball really beat 
young Douglas by knowing exactly what club 



38 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

to use here and there, and nothing but age pre- 
vented the great Hoylake man from winning the 
Championship a ninth time. 

For each case that I have seen of a player 
being modest in his expectations from the various 
clubs in his bag, I have seen fifty who certainly 
could not be accused of modesty in this respect. 
They have used light iron clubs when what 
undoubtedly was wanted was stout brassy play, 
and I can only emphasize that close attention 
to the ability of his various clubs will in the end 
most amply repay the golfing student. 

Before I go on to deal with the duties of the 
various clubs I should like to call attention to 
one grade of club which caused some argument 
towards the end of 1920 and during the earlier 
half of 1921, viz., the Ribbed Iron club. A 
great deal of talk revolved around this club, but 
really it was a mere adaptation of a club which 
had been brought into use something like a 
quarter of a century before in Britain. However, 
there was a great deal of controversy when the 
ribbed club was used in America, and more and 
more controversy when it was first suggested 
that that club or pattern of club might be intro- 
duced in England. The idea was that by having 
deep scores or grooves in the iron club there 
would be introduced more ability than previously 
to stop the ball within a small area of the point 
at which it first alighted on the ground, though 



THE USES OF THE VARIOUS CLUBS 39 

truth to tell such a theory did not greatly appeal 
to myself. 

As time goes on one hears of innovations in 
the club department, and I myself have seen 
some of the most weird pieces of golf-club con- 
struction that one could even dream of. The 
Schenectady putter as used by Mr. Walter 
J. Travis, the American, at Sandwich in 1904, had 
something to commend it as compared with 
clubs which I have seen at different stages in 
my golfing career, though the Schenectady putter 
was barred by the ruling powers of golf. Yet 
again there was something to be said for the 
putter with side struts which was used by another 
famous States golfer, and it is a hard thing to 
say exactly what is an infringement morally or 
legally of the golfing code. In any case the 
orthodox clubs which are now in use do not 
differ to any tremendous extent from those 
which were popular well over a dozen years ago, 
and I can do no better than advise any beginner 
not to be influenced by the merits, shouted from 
the house-tops, of this or that patent club. The 
law of libel prevents my particularizing, but 
more especially in these post-war days there 
seems to have been an inordinate inchnation in 
some quarters to introduce clubs which only 
have novelty as their commendable quality, and 
certainly no golfing value. I mention this and 
I emphasize it so that the beginner or the long- 



40 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

handicap man may not have a promising game 
interfered with. Putters with ghastly shapes 
and Hnes drawn across them are undoubtedly 
remarkable, but that is all that can be said for 
them. Wooden clubs with patent attachments 
are very fine things to look upon from an engineer- 
ing point of view, but personally I have no room 
for them and I cannot see how the modest golfer 
can advantageously employ them. 



CHAPTER XI 
CLUBS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES 

IN dealing with the various clubs which go 
to make the complement of a well-stocked 
bag, let me remark at the outset that a well 
stocked bag means adequacy ; it does not mean 
immensity. The man who travels round the 
links with a score or so of clubs is not likely 
to improve his game so expeditiously or so 
thoroughly as the man who sets out to master 
the mysteries of, say, half a dozen. I am writing 
for the novice now. I do not propose to offer 
advice to those players who know what to do 
with every club, for they are well enough versed 
in the matter to do without such advice. The 
novice, however, is like the young scholar ; his 
mind is pliable, and he is prepared to listen to 
the suggestions of experience. 

There are two distinct and diametrically 
opposed methods of learning the use of clubs ; 
the first is to take one club at a time and practise 
assiduously with it ; the other is to play willy- 
nilly, and wait for the occasion to use any club 
41 



42 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

in the bag. The first is undoubtedly the wiser 
course. I am not at all sure that the reduction 
of a handicap is the desired end of every golfer, 
but even if it is, it should be a corollary instead 
of an aim ; it should follow on natural improve- 
ment and be accepted as a reward therefor. 
How many times do we see golfers floundering 
about on the links with not the slightest sign 
that they will ever improve. They merely have 
a club and a ball — one might better describe 
them as a bat and a ball — and they are merely 
concerned with the task of " gaining on the 
hole." Their ball bounds over the ground hke 
a spring rabbit ; their club swings jauntily and 
unrhythmically in the air, but they are content 
because they are getting nearer the hole. That 
is not golf, that is merely outdoor and healthful 
exercise, and it is also a nuisance to other occu- 
pants of the links. 

It is my object here to point out the special, 
the allotted tasks of the clubs, and in doing so, 
let me say that clubs are designed for the work 
required of them. One big mistake made by 
beginners is that of trj^ng to assist the club too 
much. Give them a lofted club and they will 
try all they know to accentuate the loft by 
trying to slide under the ball. Let the club and 
the ingenuity of the club maker do the work. 
Time enough to learn about the vagaries of back- 
spin, top-spin and other fancy strokes, when the 



CLUBS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES 43 

straightforward game has improved. Golf is hke 
biUiards in this respect. The novice, in each 
game, tries to run before he has learned to walk. 
At golf, he tries fancy shots, at billiards he is 
imbued with the presumed necessity of getting 
*' side.*' Hit straight, hit clean and strive for 
the poetry of motion with each and all of your 
clubs. 



THE DRIVER 

Let US take a metaphoric walk round the links 
with a man who seeks information in regard to 
the clubs which he has purchased and which he 
proudly displays in a brand new bag. The very 
newness of his equipment suggests the tyro, and 
it is the tyro that I want to suggest. Well, he 
takes his driver at the first tee and, of course, 
he starts with an exaggerated waggle, a most 
clumsy stance, heaving shoulders — and a sur- 
prising miss. That is where the tutor comes in 
to show him the error of his ways. The novice 
having amazed himself by missing the ball 
altogether is in better humour to listen to real 
advice. Well, we place our novice in what is 
more or less the right position. We give him a 
nice open stance, tell him how to hold the club 
and generally teach him orthodoxy tempered by 
his own natural comfort. It is no use telling a 
man to adopt a stance which is uncomfortable. 



M GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

or a grip which he cannot accomplish. The 
natural line must, to a certain extent, dominate 
the conventional. 

The driver is designed with one main object ; 
that of sending the ball as far as possible. There 
are certain qualified or modified drivers for 
employment under special conditions, but, 
broadly speaking, the driver is the power stroke 
of the game. The novice has a vague idea of 
this, so he promptly makes his first mistake by 
calling up all his resources of muscle and strength 
and flogging the ball. But brute strength is of 
little avail. Strength is a fine addendum to the 
ability of a finished golfer, but it is impotent on 
its own. I suppose I am what is termed a 
mighty hitter, but then I am not a novice. The 
man who goes up to his ball and just hits out 
wildly is never going to get very far, other than 
by accident. Poetry is better than poundage, 
and the poetic, the well-timed swing, is going to 
do a lot more in sending the ball on a long flight 
down the fairway than contact from a mighty 
shot which has expended its energy before it 
reaches the ball or which has not reached its 
maximum speed at the moment of contact. I 
do not know of anything more eloquent of the 
beauty and science of golf than to see a sparsely 
built man appreciably outdrive a giant from the 
tee. The driver, then, should be used as a 
scientific club, not as a mere heavy weapon. 



CLUBS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES 45 

More than any other club it should " suit " its 
owner and nobody can tell the owner much about 
this. In every sport there is an affinity between 
man and his > equipment. A cricketer will feel 
at home immediately he gets hold of a bat which 
suits him, the mere " feel " tells him everything. 
The lawn-tennis player knows in an instant when 
he has found the right racket, and similarly the 
golfer is told by " love at first sight " which is 
the club for him. He can consider the merits or 
otherwise of whippiness and " head load " when 
he is really a golfer. 

The foregoing is not intended to be a technical 
commentary on the driver, but merely such 
assistance as I can offer towards that glorious 
feeling which is second to nothing at golf — the 
feehng which is exclusively the novice's, when 
he hears the crack of a well and truly driven ball. 



THE BRASSY 

Next among the orthodox clubs — and I am 
excluding quaHfied weapons such as spoons, 
baffies, etc. — is the brassy. The brassy is, in 
my opinion, the most difficult of all the clubs 
for the beginner. It has almost the length of 
shaft of the driver which it closely resembles 
except for its being shod with brass and that 
its face is deliberately lofted. The brassy is the 



46 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

reward for a well-hit tee shot on a true course 
for it should be usable with a ball lying on the 
fairway. There are times when the ball irri- 
tatingly digs in and prevents the unfortunate 
golfer from using wood, but, as a general rule, 
the well driven ball at a two shot hole, permits 
the use of the brassy for the second shot. The 
brassy should be laid closely to the back of the 
ball in order that it may be ascertained whether 
the he is suited to the club. If there is any 
doubt— if it seems that the brassy cannot get 
to the back of the ball, put it back in the bag 
and take an iron club. The remarks which I 
have made concerning the driver very largely 
apply to the brassy, although in modified form. 
The great endeavour with the brassy should be 
direction and not distance. Distance will come 
of its own accord, but the ball will only go where 
you hit it, subject to such matters as assistance 
or hindrance from windage. The man who can 
play a brassy well is at a big advantage among 
long-handicap players, wherefore it is sound 
advice to advocate concentration on brassy shots 
as part of the training. 

THE CLEEK 

The cleek is a club which has fallen mto 
disrepute because of the many alternative clubs 
which have been created for the benefit of those 



CLUBS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES 47 

players who just cannot play the cleek. This 
club will give you almost as much distance as 
the brassy if it is used properly, and it permits 
more accuracy in direction. It is a club which is 
intended for getting length and therefore comes 
in the classification of "full-swing clubs." It 
may be used where the ball does not lie sufficiently 
high to permit of the brassy being taken, but the 
cleek should not be used— as it often is used— 
when there is a lot of growth to be cut through 
before the ball can be touched. There are not 
many courses in the vicinity of London which 
allow very many opportunities of the brassy being 
played, and it is therefore not surprising that 
we find the metropoHtan golfer, as a rule, more 
adept with the cleek than are golfers who habitu- 
ally play on courses which do not call for goloshes 
in the winter. The cleek should be taken right 
through the ball and the finish should be similar 
to those which obtain with wooden clubs. The 
cleek will never perform its allotted task when it 
is permitted to stab the ball and then dig into 
the ground. 



IRONS 



There are many irons with all sorts of lofts 
on their blades and they suit so many occasions 
that their employment must of necessity be 
inspired by local conditions. It is but natural 



48 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

that the greater the loft of the blade the less is 
the potential driving power of the club, the loft 
being there to give height at the expense of 
distance. They are usually heavy enough how- 
ever to carry the ball further than mashie dis- 
tance. They form an endless variety of clubs 
with little that is consistent about them, either 
in regard to blade or shaft and they may be 
purchased with one eye on the " feel " and 
another on the course over which they will 
mainly be played. 



THE MASHIE 

The mashie is, to my mind, the master club 
of them all. It calls for super-accuracy, and is 
used over varying distances from a few yards 
to a hundred and twenty yards or so. 

There is no prettier shot in golf than the 
hundred yards approach, in which the ball, 
describing a lofty parabola falls neatly on to the 
green, and, with a little run, stays within holing 
distance. It is a mashie shot. Efficiency with 
the mashie means much, for the well-played 
approach may save a shot or two at any hole. 
The average novice does not take sufficient care 
with his mashie. It is easy to hit the ball with 
this club, but it is not so easy to do the right 
thing with it. Anybody can address a ball with 



CLUBS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES 49 

a short-shafted club and get it away somewhere, 
but there is more real finesse and more ingenuity 
associated with the mashie than with any other 
club. He who is tolerably sure of getting his 
ball on to the green from any distance upwards 
of fifty yards is a man to fear in club competitions. 
He is a terror who can make amends for bad 
shots up to " mashie play." 



THE NIBLICK 

The niblick invariably means trouble, for it is 
used in connexion with recoveries very con- 
siderably. When you are bunkered and a sandy 
sea surrounds your ball — ^it is the niblick that 
is wanted. When your ball is nearly unplayable, 
it is the niblick which is called upon to extricate 
it. The niblick is also a useful club for pitching 
on to the green from short range, since it is 
possible to impart considerable " stop " with the 
deep-faced club. The niblick is a club which 
should not be wanted very often, but when it is, 
is wanted mighty badly. It becomes acquainted 
with most of the hazards on its owner's links, 
and it is sometimes used with more vigour than 
any of its bag mates. Poor long-suffering 
niblick ! 



50 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

THE PUTTER 

The putter is the Machiavellian member of the 
club party. It is the simplest of them all, it is 
the most abused of them all, and it is the most 
irritating of them all. It is the stroke-waster- 
in-chief, and it defies all the attempts of its 
wielder to sink the ball at such times as one's 
putting is off. What more nerve-racking than 
to beat your opponent all the way to the green, 
to be stroke up within a yard and then to see 
a piffling Uttle putt send the ball round the Hp 
of the hole. There is no cure for bad putting 
other than that which lies in the hands of the 
man himself. It is of no use to tell anybody to 
take a different stance, to hold his club lower, 
to look at the hole when hitting the ball or to 
do one or other of the thousand things which 
long suffering stroke-wasters have suggested. 
Hit boldly and give the hole a chance — ^m'yes. 
But it is daring to hit boldly when the green is 
like a sheet of glass and the slightest blow sends 
the little white chief scuttling madly beyond. 
Master your putter or it will master you, but as 
to how you may do this — I wish I knew. Just 
get out on to the greens and practise ; and let 
the inspiration come to you as and when it may. 

There are many other clubs which I have not 
dealt with at all because they need not concern 



CLUBS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES 51 

the man who is starting out on his golfing career. 
He will find more than enough to get along with 
in the straightforward implements referred to 
above. 



THE REPAIR OF CLUBS 

Prevention is better than cure, and that 
applies in the matter of the players' clubs, as 
much as it does to anything else, and, in the first 
place, it is ** up to " the amateur to see that his 
clubs are of the proper kind. I mean that there 
are a great many clubs bought in retail shops 
and warehouses, in various towns and cities, 
and I have known of a huge number of cases 
where the implement has practically had to be 
rebuilt by the club professional, sometimes by 
alteration of the face, and sometimes by other 
means. As a piece of advice, I would only suggest 
that the amateur, in buying his clubs, should at 
any rate have the advice of his club professional, 
and if he does that he may be enabled to avoid 
expending more money on his clubs so that they 
are worthy of an attempt to play golf with. 

Another point which I would press home is 
that the player should, after he has been using 
his wooden clubs on wet courses, take them to 
his professional to have them re-filed, so that 



52 GOLF CLUBS AND HOW TO USE THEM 

they may get a proper grip on the ball. The 
player may then observe for himself how the 
professional files the club, as, in the event of the 
golfer slicing or pulling, a great deal can be done 
in the filing of the club to counteract the pull or 
the slice. 

Should the golfer break his club, or even partial- 
ly break the shaft at the socket, he should either 
have a new head fitted or a new shaft entirely, 
as it is quite possible that there will be a certain 
weakness in the neck of the club, which may very 
easily cause a twist at the moment of impact with 
the ball, this, in turn, being the cause of a great 
many faults — causing the player to slice or pull 
in, to him, a most mysterious way. 

I have already dealt with the importance of 
having a good grip fitted to your club, and I 
would emphasize here that it is utterly essential 
that the golfer get a firm and a good grip if he 
expects to play good shots. 

In the event of the lead in the club-head becom- 
ing loose, see that the club is taken to the profes- 
sional's shop to be re-filled at once, and I would 
also advise the player who wishes his club re- 
weighted, say by half an ounce, to have the lead 
inserted at the sole of the club, and slightly to 
the heel side of the centre. This, I maintain, 
gives a better balance than otherwise, while, to 
revert for a moment in club filing, the operation 
should result in the centre of the bulge being 



CLUBS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES 53 

slightly to the toe side of the actual centre of the 
face. 

Finally, I would advocate the periodical faking 
of the clubs to the professional for overhaul, so 
that he may varnish or polish the shafts, for many 
a time and oft have I seen good clubs go to wreck 
and ruin simply through sheer inattention. 



INDEX 



Approach, 5, 48 

Baffy, II 
Ball, J., 37 
Balls, 16 etc., 19 
Batley, J., 23 
Body, 25 etc. 
Braid, J., i 

Brassy, 4, 5, 28 etc,, 37, 
45 etc. 



Cleek, 46, 47 
Clubs, 14, 15, 36 etc. 
etc. 

grips, 13 

head, 4 

, How many, 3 

, Ribbed, 38 

shaft, 4, 5, 10, 23 

sole, 5 



42 



Drive, 17 etc., 20 etc., 24 

etc., 30 
Driver, 43 etc. 
Duncan, G., i, 27 

Follow through, 24 
Fry, S. H., 32 

Grips, 32 etc. 
Guildford, J., 32 



Herd, A., i 
HUton, H. H.. 32 

Irons, 5, 38, 47 

Jones, B., 32 

KiRKWooD, J. H., 23 

Lies, 29, 47, 49 

Mashie, 5, 6, 48, 49 
Massy, A., 27 
Mitchell, A., 23, 24 

Niblick, 6, 49 

Park, W., 21 
Practice, 21, 41, 42 
Putter, 9 etc., 38 etc., 50,^ 

Aluminium, 9 

Schenectady, 39 

Putting, 8, etc., 50 

Savers, B., 26, 27 
Swing, 21, 23, 26, 30 

Taylor, J. H., 2, 21 
Timing, 23 
Travis, W. J., 39 

Vardon, H., 27 



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